Soundgarden was one of the seminal bands in the creation of grunge, a style of alternative rock that developed in Seattle, and was one of a number of grunge bands signed to the record label Sub Pop. Soundgarden was the first grunge band to sign to a major label (A&M Records, in 1988), though the band did not achieve commercial success until they popularized the genre in the early 1990s with Seattle contemporaries Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains.

Soundgarden achieved its biggest success with the 1994 album Superunknown, which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and yielded the Grammy Award-winning singles "Black Hole Sun" and "Spoonman". In 1997, the band broke up due to internal strife over its creative direction. After several years working on projects and other bands, Soundgarden reunited in 2010 and their sixth studio album, King Animal, was released two years later.[1]

As of 2012, Soundgarden had sold more than 10.5 million records in the United States,[2] and an estimated 22.5 million worldwide.[3]

Soundgarden is one of the bands that tends to come immediately to mind when the word "Grunge" is invoked, along with Nirvana and Pearl Jam. They disbanded in 1997, though their prescence is still felt and many of the band members are still in bands, including frontman Chris Cornell who's found great success (again) in the Rage Against The Machine splinter group Audioslave.